It's quite appropriate that our old friend, the WW1 tank that used to sit on the plinth where the observation post is now should pop its head up in the centenary year of the start of the Great War as it was then called. For those of you not familiar with the story, in 1919 the Army Council had 265 battered tanks on its hands which had been brought home from France. They gave these hulks to the National War Savings Committee for presentation to towns of over 10,000 inhabitants who had made conspicuous contributions to War Savings. Barlick was one of these towns and it was part of this gesture that resulted in the tank on Letcliffe park. I have a picture of the tank being cut up for scrap in 1932 but Winnie, who used to live on Railway Street was born in 1936 and she told me she remembered climbing on the tank so perhaps it wasn't completely removed then.
At the end of January I was contacted by a gentleman from Lewes who is part of a group researching the War Savings tanks, I sent him all the information I had and he replied with this: “The tank carries its recognition number 144 which was for use on training exercises. It is a 'Male' and only a few of the gift tanks were male, most were the more numerous Female version, the Mark IV version. It's possible that the delivery date can be determined. The government, to save on transportation cost, would occasionally ship tanks destined for the same area on the same train, two or three at a time. The tanks delivered to Nelson and Colne arrived in late October and early May 1919. It's possible that your tank was delivered at the same time as one of these.” So, we know a bit more about our tank but it wouldn't surprise me if more crops up later.
However, there is a sting in the tail. When the tanks were installed in their final resting place, the mechanics who had brought them were instructed to remove ‘a portion of the mechanism by which the tanks are driven and also the wedges of the guns’. 1919 was the year of the Russian Revolution and the ‘Red Menace’ was seen as a real threat. In January 1919 there was a report in the Glasgow Herald that Councillor Emmanuel Shinwell, later to be a Cabinet Minister in the Second World War, had addressed a meeting of the Glasgow Trades and Labour Council and called for a general strike to take place on the 27th January to support their claim for a forty hour week. By the 4th of February a squadron of tanks was moved into Glasgow ready for use against the workers if needed. So when you look at what was happening at the time you can understand why the government thought it a wise precaution to disable Barlick’s tank!
Male tank 144 sat on the plinth in Letcliffe park. Thanks to Gus for the picture.
